Child support after marital and cohabitation dissolution in Spain

Abstract

Non-marital cohabitation is nowadays an accepted family framework for having and rearing children in Spain, but the separation of cohabiting couples falls under the radar of official statistics. This study compares non-resident fathers’ provision of child support between formerly married and cohabiting couples. The analysis is based on data from the 2018 Spanish Fertility Survey. Results from multivariate logistic regression models confirmed that the likelihood of receiving child support was significantly lower among formerly cohabiting mothers than among formerly married mothers, after controlling for compositional differences. This is the first study to examine differences between formerly married and cohabiting non-resident fathers in Spain in meeting economic responsibilities toward their children.